Maj. Gen. McMillian tours African Lion 2012 Humanitarian Civic Assistance site

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Nichole Bonham | Maj. Gen. Rex C. McMillian, commanding general of 4th Marine Air Wing, addresses Marines from 4th MAW and security forces from the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces in Tifnit April 15 during African Lion 2012. African Lion is an annually scheduled bilateral exercise between U.S. and Moroccan military forces aimed at improving cooperation and interoperability while exchanging ideas about tactics, techniques and procedures. The exercise is comprised of field, aviation, and amphibious maneuvers, battalion level decision-making and intelligence capacity building workshops, humanitarian civic assistance mission, and Peace Support Operations. The PSO exercise included non-lethal weapons demonstrations and crowd control techniques.  

AGADIR, MOROCCO

04.15.2012

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Nichole Bonham 

U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa     

AGADIR, Morocco – Maj. Gen. Rex C. McMillian, commanding general of 4th Marine Air Wing, a reserve command headquartered out of New Orleans, La., visited two African Lion 2012 sites in Morocco April 15.

African Lion is an annually scheduled bilateral training exercise promoting cooperation and interoperability between U.S. and Moroccan military forces. McMillian visited the Humanitarian Civic Assistance team at Amskroud, their fifth and final village location for this medical exercise. He then traveled to Tifnit to see Marines from the 4th MAW at the Peace Support Operations site.

The HCA is comprised of 51 medical providers and technicians from the Utah National Guard and the 4th Marine Logistics Group, U.S. Navy, as well as 40 Moroccan military providers from the Royal Armed Forces. McMillian met up with Maj. Gen. Brian L. Tarbet, Adjutant General for the Utah National Guard, to tour the Amskroud site and speak with the soldiers, sailors, and Moroccans providing medical and dental care to the local population.

The bilateral medical team set up temporary clinics at five different remote village locations in the Agadir area over a five-day period, April 11-15. During that time they provided medical care to more than 5,000 people and dental services to nearly1,500 more.
Capt. Stephen B. Simmons, Aide de Camp for Maj. Gen. McMillian, described it as a “pretty impressive operation.”

Mohamed Benkhaye, secretary general of the Agadir province, Col. Maj. Fouad Faiz, Military governor of the region and Col. Maj. Mohamed Allouan, Health Bureau Chief for the state, were on hand to welcome the U.S. generals and share lunch. They discussed the HCA event as well as the rest of the African Lion exercise, and ended the meal with a small gift exchange.

After lunch McMillian headed to Tifnit to meet up with 49 Marines from his command, the Marine Wing Support Group 47, participating in Peace Support Operations exercises with 49 members of the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces. Service members from both countries have spent the past two weeks sharing tactics, techniques and procedures for non-lethal weapons training and crowd control.

The RAF met McMillian at the gate with an honor guard and escorted him to a combined demonstration where U.S. and Moroccan forces worked side-by-side to contain a riot situation.
McMillian took a moment after the demonstration to talk to the enlisted service members from both the Moroccan and U.S. teams. He encouraged the junior enlisted to ask him any question they wanted to know. To the Moroccan question, “What did you hope to do when you came here?” McMillian answered that his first priority was that his Marines bond with the Moroccans, to become brothers in arms.

As an example of how well that objective was met, one of the first questions from the U.S. team was, “When are the Moroccans going to get the opportunity to come stateside?” McMillian answered that question by offering an open-ended invitation to the RAF security teams to come out to the 4th MAW’s training site anytime.

The general ended his visit with a social tea with the camp colonel, Col. Mohamed Saad-Allah. Saad-Allah and McMillian both expressed their satisfaction with the PSO exercise and the connections made between their service members. They both expressed interest in the idea of similar training exercises held on a smaller scale more often throughout the year.

McMillian will be in Morocco through the end of African Lion 12, scheduled to hold its final field training exercises April 17.

• Date Taken: 04.15.2012
• Date Posted: 04.18.2012 07:11
• Story ID: 86909
• Location: AGADIR, MA